indicted on
felony or misdemeanor. Charges 49 criminal complaints that
were presented to a grand jury
that was from Watson's perspective. The first piece of
tangible news regarding his legal entanglement that first
arose 52 weeks ago tomorrow when he was sued for the first
time, it became 22 civil lawsuits,
but he was not indicted.
The criminal side is over
and that has opened the door to teams becoming interested in
potentially trading for him. The graphic. You just saw on
the screen though.
I think it's very important because
he testifies tomorrow
in the civil cases.
If I'm a team that is doing my due diligence on DeShaun Watson,
and I know he's testifying on Tuesday
and he's going to be grilled.
He's going to be pressed. He's going to be interrogated. Like
he's never been interrogated before he and his life about
why he was doing what? He was doing
with the people that he was Finding on Instagram to give
him a massage
sessions, and
his lawyer has previously said that some of those encounters
became sexual in nature voluntarily. And the whole
gist of these lawsuits is he tried to cross the line with 22
different massage therapist. I'd want to wait and see,
you know, it, it was amazing to me. How there was this Rush
of reports about?
This team is interested that teams interested. This team is
interested that teams interested that's in Watsons
interest and it's in the Texans interest to have as many teams
perceived to be
ready to go Chris. Yeah, but I think the smart play. Yeah is
to wait the smart play is to see how tomorrow goes and that
dovetails with what Watson reported he wants to do. He
wants a meet with these teams before he decides he's going to
waive his no-trade clause for that's the other side of this
that was lost in all these different people trying to
tweet their way to more followers and more notoriety.
Hey, this teams interested that team. No, there's no pushback.
Like, how does anyone ever prove that wrong? You can say
anyone's interested. How
are you going to prove that wrong
and it, none of it matters,
until we know who Watson's interested in. All 31 teams can
be interested in DeShaun Watson. It doesn't matter.
Until we know which teams
he'll be willing to go to because he has the ultimate
Hammer of the no-trade Clause. Yeah. No, he's got. He does
that. He's got that. So he still has power in this
situation. I think you're right, and I think Teams will
do that that they're going
to, you know, they're going to evaluate this and watch it
a little bit little further down the road here before, you know,
they throw assets at the Houston Texans, the trade for
Deshaun Watson. You're right. It could
could blow up tomorrow. I mean, tomorrow, the next day. You
don't know. Like you said, it's going to be tough questioning
one, wrong statement, one bad thing
and then it can make it look horrible or make him look
horrible. So you don't know what direction that goes. But
I mean, we do know, there's teams that are interested we do. And
there's gonna A play.
And again, I I always got the sense that there was a
and I think I was saying this to you at the time,
there was a sense in the NFL that,
you know, again, this is just a young kid who did
some immature, stupid things and people are willing to just
kind of swipe it under the rug just as leave it at that and
move on. I got that sense. I know that I told you that a few
times
and of course, I think we know, there's some teams that are
real players in this situation. It's just going to be
interesting to see, you know, how it shakes out. Out and and
how Watson's going to make his decision here? Because some
teams have been
scratched off the board
and there's not as many options but there still some good ones
out there.
And let me just address this a little more carefully and
clearly, because I've got experience in this Arena.
Now, on Friday.
That was the first session for Deshaun Watson to be questioned
under oath, in the 22 civil lawsuits that were filed
against him. And what happened was there was a skirmish in
court, a few weeks back
where the judge said. Okay,
the grand jury is still pending
anything. He says can be used against him.
So, what we'll do is for the people who have made criminal
complaints.
The deposition of DeShaun Watson in their cases will be
delayed until April 14.
The people who
have not made criminal complaints to deposition can
proceed. While the miscalculation there, is that
DeShaun Watson is going to talk about any of the stuff that he
did at any of these massages.
While there's still a chance he could get indicted in any of
the cases because anything he says can and will be used
against him. So he invoked the Fifth Amendment repeatedly
through three hours of questioning. I think it was
three hours. It was
You know, Tony Busby the lawyer representing the 22 individuals
just kept asking question after question. After question. He
kept invoking the Fifth Amendment.
Now, he's not going to do that. He's going to testify on
Tuesday, and Chris.
I don't know anything about Tony Busby other than he's done
a pretty good job of
of working his cases in the media. Although I don't agree
with some of his methods. Yeah, he's managed to get maximum
publicity for them and and and
and taint, the jury and get the court of public opinion on his
side. But bottom line is a guy's been successful and he's
practiced law for between 25 and 30 years.
And when you do that
during the process of practicing law, for that long,
You question, thousands of people under oath, in all sorts
of contexts.
And the deposition is the most common,
you're in a conference room. There's no judge there. There's
no jury there. It's just you, the witness,
the lawyer
who represents the other side and the court reporter and
typically, that's it. There may be some legal assistance and
whatnot and other lawyers there depending upon how the big
the case is, but it's a very small group.
And for the guy, who's sitting in the witness chair,
first time he's ever done it,
at least the show and Watson, got a little preview on Friday,
but he didn't have to answer any questions and I'm telling
you. I've been there on the other side of the table, you
get a guy who's in his mid-20s.
You get a guy who's never done this before,
you get a guy, who's got some awkward and uncomfortable
things to talk about.
It's gonna be a long day for Deshaun Watson. Sure. It's
going to be a long day for Deshaun Watson, because that
lawyer is going to know how to come at him from every possible
angle
every possible way to press his buttons, and to get him to snap
to get him pissed off to get him upset to get him. Disarmed.
That's what you do. And this is a lot like the
combine interview process, we hear about
What the coaches in the scouts try to do
is bust through the preparation. Yeah, because we
know all those guys show up with with coaching from their
agents on what to say, what not to say and how to say it and
I know
that every witness
especially a defendant the one who
is facing the allegations in a civil case. That person has
been prepared
on how to deal with
this lawyer and I don't know how much time Rusty hardening
company. Have spent doing this. If they done mock practice
sessions with questions and Etc. They should, they should
to help get him ready to help. Get him to understand how to
deal with the stress
and everything is going to be going on inside of his brain
and his stomach and
as he's getting grilled and grilled grilled,
but Busby's going to try to bust through that preparation.
That's who's going to try to do
and it's not, it is, it is going to be a long day and my
point is it can go off the rails for Deshaun Watson
and if I'm a team that's interested.
Yeah. I want to wait. See how it goes on Tuesday. Yeah, no
doubt.
That's reason number one. I mean, I think you explained
that pretty clearly. Yeah, you want to make sure he doesn't
get frustrated or flustered and say something crazy and
everything gets flipped upside down and then it's becomes like
oh, no, he said that we can't trade to him or whoa. He did
dues, you know, maybe more than we thought here.
Yeah. It's not a good bad. Look, it's going to be
a controversial
trade no matter what, no matter. ER, what let alone if
he says something bad or does something wrong here and makes
the wrong step, it just going to become
that much more controversial.